1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to electronic communication networks and services. More particularly, and without limitation, the invention relates to methods and systems for providing communication services based on the location of a user accessing the services.
2. Background Information
People have changed how they access and use communication services due, in large part, to the advances in personal mobile communications and the increasing popularity of social networking. Over the last several decades, mobile phone technology has steadily evolved and is now available in every industrialized country throughout the world. With the rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web (or simply the “Web”), social networking sites have also increased in number and usage, and today are among the most popular sites on the Web.
Modern mobile communication networks offer a variety of devices and services that provide both mobility and easy access to communication services and information. For example, mobile devices, such as smart phones and personal media players, support mobile telephony and Internet access in conjunction with associated application services. Further, a wide range of application services are available to mobile device users, including streaming video, text messaging, instant messaging, and traditional voice services.
Application services for mobile devices, however, are often designed as desktop solutions later modified for use in a mobile environment. Social networking applications, for example, are popular desktop applications. Social networking applications, including Web-based and desktop applications, allow users to create and/or share content reflecting their interests. To aid communication between users, some social networking applications allow users to create their own personal environment or groups. In addition, many social networking applications include tools for creating or sharing content with others that share similar interests or that belong to an individual user's group or personal environment.
Despite these technological advances, there are several drawbacks with existing mobile and social networking applications. For example, application services for mobile devices are often first designed as desktop solutions and not optimized for use in a mobile environment. In addition, features related to mobile communication networks and social networking applications have not been successfully integrated with one another. For instance, in a mobile environment, information associated with a mobile user's location is typically not a component of a social network or integrated with social networking tools. As a result, content accessible using a social networking application may appear undifferentiated to a mobile user as compared to a user accessing a social network or group from a fixed location (e.g., home or office). Moreover, social networking applications lack location-relevant functionality to improve their usefulness for mobile users.
As a result of these and other drawbacks, there is a need for improved systems and methods for integrating mobile and social networking environments. For example, there is a need for systems and methods that provide or restrict social networking or other content to a mobile user depending on their current location. There is also a need for systems and methods with location-relevant functionality, so that communication services may be offered to mobile users depending on their location.